POST FALLS, Idaho — Post Falls City Council voted Tuesday night to remove Juneteenth as a city holiday and reinstate Columbus Day, sparking controversy and divided reactions across the community.
The 4-2 vote means city employees will no longer receive Juneteenth off as a paid holiday, while municipal buildings like City Hall will be closed on Columbus Day instead. The change affects only city operations and does not impact how residents choose to observe either holiday.
Mayor Randy Westlund pushed for the change and defended the decision. “My own view is that Juneteenth is something nobody had heard of until 5 years ago and was pushed for political purposes,” Westlund said during the meeting.
The decision has drawn sharp criticism from civil rights leaders. James McDay, president of the Kootenai County NAACP chapter, characterized the vote as discriminatory.
“This was a very subtle but overt display of the racial bias in leadership in our community,” McDay said. “It is just going to make it hard for the playing field to be leveled for people to come into the community with ethnic diversity.”
Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021 and is recognized as a legal public holiday in Idaho.
Columbus Day commemorates Christopher Columbus’s landing in the Americas but has become controversial in recent years. Many cities have replaced it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day to honor Native American communities.
During Tuesday’s meeting, some council members suggested the city could observe both holidays. City Council member Joe Malloy proposed alternating between the two celebrations.
“I think both are very relevant to our history,” Malloy said.
The decision has generated intense reactions on social media, with residents expressing both support and opposition to the change. City leaders have characterized the vote as a policy decision regarding employee holiday schedules, but community response suggests the implications extend far beyond municipal operations.
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